Watching his country's turmoil from exile for two decades, Afghan sculptor Amanulah Haiderzad always worried about the two soaring statues of Buddha hewn into this barren valley's towering sandstone cliffs.

The ancient monuments escaped damage throughout the 10-year Soviet invasion and Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s. But they were demolished last year by the former Taliban regime, which said the Buddhas violated Islamic bans on human images and idolatry.

Now Mr Haiderzad is back in Afghanistan for the first time in 23 years, returning at the request of the interim government to organise reconstruction of the statues.

"I had this dream to come back and visit, but not like this," the 62-year-old sculptor said on a plateau overlooking the site where the majestic statues once stood.

Carved into a mountainside above the central city of Bamiyan in the 3rd and 5th centuries, the Buddhas were considered cultural treasures.

The larger of the two, with a height of 175ft, is thought to have been the world's tallest standing Buddha. The smaller statue was 115ft tall.

The decision of the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to destroy the statues was met with international outrage, but went on regardless.

After trying for weeks to obliterate them with anti-aircraft guns and rockets, Taliban troops finally blew up the relics in March 2001, placing explosives into holes bored into the rock.

"It was a very sad day for me," said Mr Haiderzad, who saw the images on TV from his home in New York. "They didn't understand that these statues don't belong to the Taliban. They belong to Afghanistan, to human history."

The Buddhas' destruction was only one element of the Taliban assault on Afghan culture. The Taliban banned music, television, movies and theatre, and spent three days smashing statues in the Kabul museum.

A small version of the Bamiyan Buddhas sculpted by Mr Haiderzad, now on display in Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, was also defaced by the Taliban.

Today, only rubble is left of the tall statues - giant sandstone rocks piled where the Buddhas once stood.

Mr Haiderzad said he visited the Bamiyan statues as a boy, and they inspired him to become a sculptor. He studied sculpture in Italy for six years, and then established a fine arts department at Kabul university. But when the Soviets invaded in 1979, Mr Haiderzad fled to the United States.

It is unclear whether both mammoth statues will be restored. Mr Haiderzad said authorities may decide to rebuild the larger Buddha and leave the smaller one in ruins as a testament to Taliban "barbarity".

Mr Haiderzad estimates it will take four to five years to rebuild the larger statue, and just beginning the project is a huge undertaking.

The administration of the interim prime minister, Hamid Karzai, has no money for the project, and is now looking for "anyone, anywhere" to help out, Mr Haiderzad said.

Mr Karzai, who visited Bamiyan on Tuesday, said his government has been in contact with Unesco, the UN agency responsible for safeguarding the world's cultural heritage.

The sculptor hopes the project will put Afghans to work, including his former students at Kabul university.

"One thing I'm sure of - we are going to use the same materials, the same techniques to do it," Mr Haiderzad said, referring to the original builders.

Most Bamiyan residents welcome the government initiative. "This was our heritage that the stupid Taliban destroyed," said one resident, Haji Hussein Ali. "It's good that they are going to rebuild it."

But in a poor city that has been a battlefield for years, there are also other priorities. "We cannot rebuild it on empty stomachs," 55-year-old Mr Ali said, rubbing the tips of his fingers along a set of pink plastic prayer beads.